As expected, there is plenty of discussion at SAP Sapphire about its cloud strategy and product plans.
Key announcements include the news that SaaSy Business ByDesign has been broken apart so customers can procure loosely coupled components (but can still opt for the full suite). There was also news of a cloud data integration service, a PaaS offering based on NetWeaver for the cloud, and plans to build cloud applications around four management areas: people, money, customers, suppliers. From a design stance, social/collaboration and mobile are viewed as core parts of the application portfolio – ie they will run through applications rather than being viewed as discrete applications.
We’ll go into the detail and provide full analysis once Sapphire has closed and we’ve had a chance to digest the news but what is apparent is that SAP is demonstrating how seriously it is taking SaaS. It has declared this before but there are some key differences this time around that are best summed up by comments from co-CEO Jim Hagemann Snabe. One was that SAP has learned from its past cloud forays. Another was that Lars Dalgaard (CEO of acquired SuccesFactors and now head of SAP’s cloud business) has cloud-only DNA. To use SAP’s words, the company is ‘extegrating” (as opposed to integating - ie although the cloud is integal to the overall business, the company has set up a cloud division to enable it to develop as it needs to), to try and make its latest cloud initiative succeed.